Have Yourself A Holly Jolly Mexican Wrestling Surf Guitar Christmas!!--Los Straitjackets

'Tis The Season For Los Straitjacket is one of my favorite rock n roll Christmas records. Well executed, upbeat, and a record that you can put on even when your grandma is visiting at Christmas time, as opposed to your Happy Holidays with G.G. Allin or Slayer's Christmas In Hell.

Los Straitjackets perform guitar instrumental versions of a bunch of Christmas standards such as Frosty The Snowman, Let It Snow, and Feliz Navidad. Plus they perform wearing Mexican wrestling masks, as musical Luchadores. How cooler can you get than that. Stylistically they are in the realm of guitar groups like the Ventures or the Surfaris. Within many of the Yuletide songs on this album are reverb saturated surf guitar breaks, even Ramonesy interludes.

I saw these guys perform a good number of years ago at the now defunct Tramps in NYC, opening for Southern Culture on the Skids and Jason and the Scorchers. They were great! You could even buy Luchadore masks at the gig! What a mystery it was to the crowd on hand. Who the heck were these masked marauders?

On this Christmas album there is a patch of Del Shannon's Runaway in the middle of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. There is the Elvisy Christmas In Las Vegas. Worthy of mention is their own Christmas original Christmas Weekend, a nice hard rocking instrumental. In the final analysis 'Tis The Season is excellent holiday fodder, a perfect soundtrack to all your Christmas debauchery. Rumor has they have released a followup to this holiday album entitled Yuletide Beat available as an mp3 which include cameos by El Vez the legendary Mexican Elvis. Have not heard this yet, but I'm sure it is another high quality recording.